The Optimal Length for Social Media and Web Content

As marketers, we are constantly attempting to find the best way to optimize our communications. We often understand that longer online content and social media posts can deter our consumers from engaging with our brand.

Thankfully, SumAll created an infographic that provides best case recommendations for the optimal length for social media and web content.

The Optimal Length for Social Media and Web Content

Facebook – Posts with 40 characters receive 86% more engagement than posts with a higher character count.

Google Plus – If your Google+ headline can’t be contained in one line, your first sentence must be a gripping teaser to get people to read more.

Paragraphs – Opening paragraphs with larger fonts and fewer characters per line make it easier for the reader to focus and jump quickly from one line to the next.

Domain Names – The best domain names are short, easy to remember and spell, don’t contain hyphens or numbers, and have a .com extension.

Hashtags – Don’t use spaces or special characters, don’t start with or only use numbers, and be careful with using slang.

E-Mail Subjects – Subject lines containing 28-39 characters get an open rate of 12.2% and click rate of 4% on average.

Title Tags – Make sure your title doesn’t exceed 60 characters or it will get shortened with an ellipsis.

THE IDEAL WORD COUNT

Blog Headlines – Only the first 3 words and the last 3 words of a headline tend to be read. Rather than worrying about length, you should focus on making every word count.

LinkedIn Posts – If you’re marketing to businesses, write a 16-25 word posts. If you’re marketing to consumers, a 21-25 word posts would get the most shares.

Blog Posts – Overall, 74% of posts that are read are under 3 minutes long and 94% are under 6 minutes long.

THE IDEAL NUMBER OF MINUTES

YouTube – The most popular videos are pretty short. After analyzing the length of the top 50 YouTube videos, the average length was 2 minutes 54 seconds.

Podcasts – The average Podcast listener stays connected for 22 minutes on average. Studies show students zone out after 15-20 minutes of lecture time. After 20minutes attention and retention rates crash.

TED Talk – All TED Talk presenters are required to come in under the 18-minute mark based on studies on people’s attention spans. Putting a time limit forces people to be more concise in what they want to say as well as increases chances of vitality.

Slideshare – If you’re following the rules of good presentation design, you’re creating an in-depth presentation with an ideal number of about 61 slides.

Infographic

Has any of these recommendations worked for you? Which ones have you tested?

Juntae is a sought-after digital strategist who specializes in helping businesses build brands online. He is the Chief Strategist of Digital Delane, founder of the Digital Branding Institute, and Sr. Digital Brand Manager for the University of Southern California. Juntae has worked with many brands across various industries such as Coca-Cola, Sony, Verizon, NBCUniversal, Paramount Pictures and many others. He is noted as a Top Social Media Influencer in several publications and has spoken around the country teaching businesses how to build powerful digital brands. If not on stage, you can catch him at the gym, flying private planes, or scuba diving off the coast.